New Delhi: A former ad-hoc teacher at Delhi University, Dr Ritu Singh, is facing charges under IPC Section 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation) after she set up a pakoda stall in protest against being removed from her job.
Singh, a 28-year-old psychology teacher from a Dalit community who taught at Daulat Ram College, was removed from her position within a year of her hiring in 2019. She has been protesting the alleged caste discrimination and illegal termination she faced in various ways.
Singh set up the stall outside Delhi University’s Arts Faculty. “I have no job, so I took to the streets to sell ‘pakodas’ to make my own bread in this very same university that awarded me my degree. This is where I am, after being wrongly terminated from my services,” she told The Indian Express.
“There have been several attempts to silence my protest against the injustice which took place. My cart ‘PhD pakode wali’ is also part of my protest… I started this cart on Sunday, without causing any inconvenience to anyone at gate number 4 of the Arts Faculty, where I earlier held my protest… A day or two later, police visited the spot, asking me for my licence for the cart and threatened me to leave the premises… I could have been served a notice in a dignified manner, but what was the need to book me under a case for this?” she continued.
The police removed Singh’s cart, alleging encroachment. “We sent a team to remove the stall as it was impeding public movement in the area,” a police officer told The Indian Express.
A report in The Times of India noted that Singh had named the items on her menu as markers of protest, like ‘jumla pakoda’, ‘special recruitment drive pakoda’ and ‘berozgari special chai’. “I want the teachers and students to see the plight of Dalit academics and the systemic barriers they face even after graduating from the prestigious Delhi University,” she told the newspaper.
In early 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had famously said when asked about unemployment in an interview, “If someone opens a pakoda shop in front of your office, does that not count at employment? The person’s daily earning of Rs 200 will never come into any books or accounts. The truth is massive people are being employed.” Several experts have pointed out why Modi’s remarks were misguided.
